5 comments

I have been in Drachten (I’m Dutch) and it’s a very sleepy small town in the Netherlands. This experiment is fine in Holland where drivers are properly trained and actually look around for pedestrians and bikes in blind spots. I had to take a class and pass a driving test on my bike at age 8, and almost everybody I know took two or three tries to pass the car driving test when older. It’s hard and they want you to be perfect.

Here such a roundabout wouldn’t fly I’m afraid. People don’t know how to use roundabouts (partly because there is no “right of way for traffic from the right” rule in North-America) and they wouid be totally lost.

One reason is because Montreal is a big city, and another reason is that Quebec drivers are not very polite towards other users of the road. Not necessary out of malice, but they aren’t used to it (half of the year there aren’t many bikes) and don’t even know the rules of the road. Ever tried to cross a cross walk? Nobody stops.

@Mare. You’ll notice more and more municipalities are constructing roundabouts. Think of Nun’s Island, or Bromont in the Easten Townships (perhaps others) : they have european-style roundabouts (with yield signage) and seem to work fine.